When eight-year-old Slade Dill contracted a flesh-eating bug doctors were so convinced that he was going to die that they decided not to amputate his leg.
But, incredibly, the boy has made a miracle recovery – with both his legs intact!
Slade, from Dietrich, Idaho, US was playing tag at school on when he cut his knee. His leg began to swell, and scans showed the infection had spread to his abdomen and chest.
He was flown to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, where he was diagnosed with the flesh-eating disease, necrotising fasciitis.
Slade, who is a runner, could have lost his leg, but doctors didn't amputate because they didn't expect him to live, his mother Dixie said. Slade defied their expectations and is projected to make a complete recovery after arriving home on Monday.
He'll be taking antibiotics every day, and he'll get his stitches out from his surgery in two or three weeks.
"Whatever they say, we are going to do it and be thankful," his mum told local news.
Necrotising fasciitis is a bacterial infection most commonly carried by a cough or sneeze from someone carrying the group A Strep bacteria - the same one that causes common strep throat - which can then be transmitted to an open wound by touch.